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Comment by helloworld1 | Hacker News Reader

The point I'm trying to make is that not many people interpret F bombs the way you do. Some people get excited. Some people don't care. Some people have some images flash through their head. Some people get offended. Some people get uncomfortable.The world is big. There are many different people with different cultural, religious values and social norms. Something you think is no big deal can be an offense or distraction for others. Show some respect for diversity.

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We can't bend over backwards for every single minority or religion or cultural value.

If he wasn't effective as a communicator he wouldn't be doing talks in front of large numbers of people would he? Clearly he's doing something right.

The point I guess that I'm trying to make is that we shouldn't be so strung up on one or two words that show up in a presentation. The overall picture is what matters the most. If he's doing that well then who are we to argue with what he does?

Everyone presents their ideas differently. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates… Meg whatever from HP…

Some are great, some are terrible, a lot are inbetween. But I'm in the camp of people that just simply don't care so long as the message is clear. If I'm learning something, I don't care if someone swears. It just doesn't bother me. Maybe that's a problem, but there are at least two sides to this.

People that care about the swearing and those that don't. I'm sure there are others who just don't give a damn either, just like me.

If what he is doing is so wrong and terrible, then he won't be speaking anywhere again right? The concensus would be "he isn't effective at communicating and uses bad language that offends our audience. We can't have him."

At which point, he'd be forced to change, or not speak.

You're welcome to an opinion, same as I do. But you can't bend over for every single person out there. If we had to worry about people's feelings all the time the world would be dull and dry.

I would agree there are limitations to what someone should do or say in a presentation though. I don't think the f-bomb once or twice is a problem though. If he was dropping it left and right, that's another story altogether.

I am not suggesting that he wasn't effective as a communicator. In fact, I would still listen to his presentations and won't be bothered by any profanity. My point is that advocating profanity in tech presentations is not necessary. It seems like a lot of young people are eager to drop profanity words when they present to wide audiences just to show how cool and different they are. But when everyone does it in presentations, it becomes cliche or even a pain.

This comes back to know your audience, or at least know your intended audience and don't worry about everyone else.

As you allude to, it is easy to offend people unintentionally, often without realizing it. In certain parts of the Middle East, crossing your legs in such a way that the bottom of your shoe or foot is exposed is highly offensive, but most Americans wouldn’t even notice. The movie "The Last Airbender" had some issues in Britain because "bender" has a slang meaning there that has nothing to do with either elemental control or reshaping objects.

You cannot worry about the possibility of offending anyone if you want to make any kind of point at all. Rather, you take your audience into account. If I am addressing a group of Infantrymen, swearing might be quite appropriate and might both help me connect better with my audience and emphasize the part I really want them to get. If I am addressing a group of Church Elders, then swearing is probably distracting at best.

You could make the exact same argument over any word in any language. People have emotional responses to words and images based on their life experiences. Some are good, some are bad. Am I not going to use the word "staircase" in my presentation because someone in the audience might have fallen down one at some point in their life?

Give me a break.

so "fucking" and "staircase" are the same for you? If I've a female boss, I wouldn't drop F words or other sexual profanity words in front of her in work place unless I know she doesn't mind. And I can't just make assumptions for that. I'm just saying in some social environment and audience, people should think twice about dropping profanity words.

You can't go through life worrying about what might offend people. Because the scope of what people are offended by is enormous. Some people are offended by sex before marriage. Or atheists. Or religious people. Or gay people. Or vegetarians.

Sure, if you're holidaying in Saudi Arabia, you shouldn't walk around badmouthing Mohammed. But for the most part you can be certain that a small percentage of your actions will offend a small percentage of the people you meet. Such is life.

Fun fact: here in the UK, the word "git" is mildly offensive (I mentioned GitHub amongst family and got a bit of an incredulous look). The company the guy works at is an offensive word.

You made my point. You don't need to worry about it if don't know. But it would nice to be considerate when you're aware of it. I'm just worried that a lot of young presenters drop profanity words in presentations just so to make themselves look cool. I hope F bombs won't become a rule of giving tech presentations.

Fun tangent: Linus knows about the word `git` - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)#Name

>The company the guy works at is an offensive word. //

Git is not a harsh word, it's used more playfully than anything IME.

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